How North Carolina emerged as one of Democrats’ biggest midterm bright spots: From the Politics Desk

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In today’s edition, Natasha Korecki digs into battleground North Carolina’s massive midterm shift toward Democrats.

In today’s edition, Natasha Korecki digs into battleground North Carolina’s massive midterm shift toward Democrats. Plus, our Capitol Hill team has the latest on the Republican leadership elections.

With so many competing storylines and surprising outcomes from last week’s midterms, it may have been easy to miss what happened in North Carolina.

Democrats have so far managed to flip five seats from red to blue in the Tar Heel State, tied for the most of any state in the country with California, where a redrawn map gave the party a boost. And with three House races still uncalled in North Carolina, there could be more.

Razor-thin margins separate two Republican incumbents, Reps. Greg Murphy and Virginia Foxx, and their Democratic challengers in the 3rd and 5th districts, respectively. And in the 7th District, GOP Rep. David Rouzer is up by roughly 2,500 votes.

This is all happening in a state that hasn’t gone for a Democrat in a presidential race since Barack Obama in 2008, and one that President Donald Trump carried by 3 points in 2024.

But last week, former Gov. Roy Cooper anchored the party’s efforts at the top of the ticket, sailing to victory over former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley by nearly 20 points.

This swing occurred even after Republicans drew a new congressional map in 2025, when they aimed to extend their advantage from 10-4 to 11-3. The mid-decade redistricting effort, spurred on by Trump, backfired spectacularly, as it did in other states.

In addition to the five flips — all in districts Trump carried by at least 9 points in 2024 — Democratic Rep. Don Davis held on to the seat in the 1st District the GOP was targeting by 3 points. And one of the seats Democrats gained is held by Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of House Republicans’ national campaign arm.

Kian Sadjadi, the executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said he was still studying the results, but that the largest discernible shift he saw came from young, male…

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